Ongoing

11 Aug 2020  What a lovely ray of sunshine Jacinda is in this gloom ridden world. We need more with her qualities all over the world and fewer egotistical, in the main blokes, like our disappointing PM, Putin, Xi Jinping, the legendary Kim of N Korea and the USAs joke of an unbalanced President Trump in charge.

Kev, I'm wondering if you actually watched the podcast or have read the book? I have on both counts and what you suggest in your reply is not what the QC is advocating at all. His research has been thorough and deep looking at how systems do or do not work all over the world. In the podcast, he comes to a ballpark figure of circa 100 unredeemable criminals who should never be released in the UK but argues eloquently that a guy who turned to progressive theft followed by release, reoffending to actually return to prison where he has been in and out of and is now 55 years old at a cost of around £50K to the state a year prison isn't working. 2.3M people in the USA in prison! In Switzerland, they have legalised drugs resulting in no cases of 15-year-old kids dying as they sometimes do in the UK after taking a drug of too high a purity or cut with harmful substances and heroin addicts actually becoming clean again and going back into useful lives in society. The current system fails society but is a vote winner for politicians. As with education, something needs to be done to mend the system.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50245253-interference" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Interference" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577933110l/50245253._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50245253-interference">Interference</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2941328.Brad_Parks">Brad Parks</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3498697672">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

Brad Parks is a new author to me and I have started reading him on his 10th book. I found it difficult for about 90 pages to adapt to Brad’s style and grasp the nub of the well-thought-out and super extremely complicated plot. After that progress I found the book a gripping and compelling read. Full of twists and turns and high octane excitement. I even managed to keep on track with the swerves and diversions that had me guessing until very near the end to be certain who the villain of the peace was. It surprised me! 

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https://www.facebook.com/thelodgesurgery/posts/172863417722789

03 Feb 2022 Yes. On Q1 I put the wrong answer. I have little or no intention of watching this spectacle. When it starred these competitions were functional & fair nowadays it's all about commercial nonsense and one-upmanship. High time this nonsense was stopped. On the last question I view China as a greater threat to world peace than even Putin's Russia. China's human rights record is deplorable. Covid19 almost certainly came out of a laboratory in China and as to the malware issue the fact our stupid crazy government could be allowing them to be a partner in building a nuclear power station here beggars belief. https://health-study.joinzoe.com/blog/omicron-symptoms?utm_medium=email&utm_source=zoe_covid_study&utm_campaign=1_July_2022_GB&mc_cid=dd3582c9d3&mc_eid=25bfcadcc4 East of Eden & Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a brilliant pair of books. I felt East of Eden was superb but The Grapes of Wrath is up another notch again. The inequalities in life experiences by accident of birth were stark when Steinbeck wrote these books and sadly stark comparisons of the imbalance are equally present in 2022. A truly epic read that has left me wanting to discover how life went on for the family members featured.

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Boxing Day 26 December 2021

Last Sunday I was booked in to attend the (from a pedestrian's viewpoint) abysmally signposted @wiltscouncil Wiltshire Unitary Council owned Chippenham - Mobile PCR Testing Unit at Chippenham Council Depot SN15 5PT and set off in plenty of time walking to find it but what with fog and a road run taking place was unable to locate it and during the following week put in twice to receive a home test kit. Despite acknowledgement neither arrived. Eventually following prompting by the Zoe App I applied again to attend the mobile unit having convinced myself that I knew the directions to find it. Coming out of Cocklebury Lane the Google App tried to take me to the left telling me the destination was 3 minutes walk away. I knew it wasn't! Confirming with a lovely family walking down the footpath from the right that it was indeed in that direction I continued along the footpath to the junction taking a right at the roundabout walking past the Wavin factory the app was then telling me the location was 7 minutes walk away. It was indeed at https://www.google.com/url?q=https://w3w.co/retract.rotation.trickster The staff at the centre were excellent but I was astonished to disconver they were part of the French owned Sudexo outfit https://uk.sodexo.com/your-industry/healthcare.html who seem to have taken over the testing system. Thank goodness for our friends in #Europe. Our wonderful NHSStaff are currently under immense pressure. They have a bad pay and conditions deal and the ongoing #Pandemic is putting them under immense extra pressure. I spent 2 weeks in the #Care of the wonderful RUH Bath in August and I'd have happily contributed on top of my #NI payments over the years to a top-up fund to chip in toward giving #NHSstaff a fair pay structure. The fact that a Staff Nurse is paid, I think, £12 PH and butchers for example are paid £15 PH is a total disgrace. Fair enough those going into the medical profession do so in part because it's a dedication and something they are wonderful at but they must be given fair pay and conditions. We the public demand this. Given we know that some #NHSStaff are forced to visit #Foodbanks currently to make ends meet is an extra travesty. As an aside, I will be donating through sponsoring one of my daughters running in March for the @foreverfriendsappeal https://www.foreverfriendsappeal.co.uk/

Book Review - Shallow Ground by Andy Maslen

 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53817640-shallow-ground" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Shallow Ground (DI Henry Ford, #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1591269095l/53817640._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53817640-shallow-ground">Shallow Ground</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/870945.Andy_Maslen">Andy Maslen</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4329773180">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

Andy Maslen really has hit the Crime Drama scene running with this his first detective Ford book. A superbly intricate cast of characters thrown together, a sad but excellent build-up to the start of the real crime. I just love the way he adds so much extra detail to the story, such as the weather, sun on cornfields etc it makes it feel all the more real. I'm about 3 chapters in and already this series is up thereof not well beyond J K Rowling aka Galbraith’s Corman Strike series. It actually has the hairs on the back of my neck rising as I read about one line of enquiry dropping into place. Superb. It also has me smiling a lot when nice things start to happen. A full-on page-turner from the start to the very last page. Quite brilliant. 

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Housebuilding

 It's a bit rich to find Tory MP's being critical of their Government strategy being implemented by the Council they control through their dreadful cabinet system. This vast housebuilding programme ALL OVER the country is happening. 7,500 new houses to be built on green pasture land in Chippenham supported by an unwanted road carving up from Laycock around the back of the town crossing the river and cycle track. Not bringing new jobs with them but serving commuters out of the town. In the blink of an eye we will see Devizes absorb Pottern, Roundway, Coate, Bishops Cannings having already absorbed Nurstead village. Chippenham marches ever faster to join up with Calne. Westbury and Trowbridge are fast becoming one entity. Where does it all stop?      

Book Reviews

Dead Wrong (Calladine & Bayliss) by Helen H. Durrant 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new author to me and certainly one I will be returning for more of. It is a good solid plot which for me had one massive flaw in. I won't reveal when or where in the book that is but it lacked logic. Loved the characters and there at work and social interactions and clearly indicate how they are building blocks going to be used in future books in the series. 

Festivities

Don’t get me wrong I’m no party pooper but I thing that we in the UK now have our priorities wrong. Here we are at the beginning of 2007 with the largely false festivities of Christmas and the New Year celebrations behind us and me wondering if I’m living partially on another planet. Why do I say this? I say it because I’m totally disgusted at the virtual disappearance of the true celebration of the birth of Christ – a disappearance that has been replaced by an obscene quest by most toward worshiping and obeying the new religion of commercialism and excess. Add to that the disgusting spectacle of waste that now threads almost any “occasion” in the UK where the Country wastes huge resource in the form of fireworks – fireworks that are mostly imported at that!

On one hand the Government tries to tell the people it represents that it is running the country well and doing it’s bit toward creating sustainability in environmental issues yet many of us now look on and realise what a joke that all is. What have we as a country to celebrate with the departure of 2006 and the arrival of 2007; little I believe. We are a Country under heavy threat of fresh terrorist atrocities. We are a World under huge threat from environmental disaster. We are told on one hand to do our bit for the environment by switching to low energy light bulbs and increasing our recycling rates yet on the other hand we are almost encouraged to squander resource during the “Festive Season” by festooning our houses with imported display lighting and wasting millions of pounds on excessive firework displays. Firework displays that undoubtedly damage both the environment and the economy of the Country. Fireworks that scares the life out of domestic animals and wildlife and fireworks that must remind our armed forces on R&R of the war torn area of the World they have been fighting to preserve?

Isn’t it time our Government took a real lead and yes encouraged celebration when it’s due but in the framework of respect. Respect for celebration of Christianity and other religious festivals. But in these environmentally challenged times above all a respect for the environment by consistently encouraging stewardship not an ebb and flow waste of our planets finite resources?